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roblemroblem :: milchmilch vsvs .. meatmeat pastoralismpastoralismhe identification of herd exploitation strategies poses a number of hallenges to the archaeological research. The question which was the mainnimal product is not important only in the context of economics. Differentbour requirements connected with milch and meat pastoralism play aucial role in shaping social relations of production and therefore influence

very pore of life.

While it may be reasonable to assume that milk was available for humanonsumption from the beginning of animal husbandry, Andrew Sherrat981) proposed that the intensification of dairying begin the 3 rd millenniumC as a component of the secondary products complex.

he key archaeological issue is therefore not to provide evidence for theilisation of dairy products, but rather to access the scale of production andgnificance of this activity in prehistoric economies.

MethodMethod :: killkill -- offoff curvescurvesaditional method used for detection of animal management strategies is

nalysis of kill-off curves. Payne (1973) proposed - on the basis of hishnoarchaeological research among Turkish

astoralists - a middle range theory, which links flockanagement strategies to the kill-off curves. It is

ased on the assumption than optimisation of animalp ro du ct s c an b eobtained bymanipulation of sexand age structure of the herd. Idealdairying and meatmodels differ in theage when males arec ul led. I n i dealdairying model, mostanimals youngerthan two months arecul led in order toreduce competitionfor milk with people.With optimal meatstrategy most

nimals are culled when the reach age of one to threeears, as they achieve their maximum weight.

owever, use of faunal kill-off patterns to define scalend specifics of animal husbandry has been heavilyiticised. Besides problems inherent in preservation

nd recovery of animal bones, ancient ancient livestockay have different productivity than modern,pecially breed animals. High juvenile culling need notdicate a dairy economy but can be the result of dder preserving strategies. Even more, the presencelambs may be prerequisite of early dairying in order

stimulate lactation of the sheep. Therefore modern,ptimised strategies can not serve as a reliable modelr prehistoric flock management strategies.

DataData :: fourfour sitessites ,, fourfour phasesphasesill-off curves from the four sites (Grotta dellEdera/ena ca; Boschin and Riedel 2000, Grotta deglingari/ Ciganska jama; Bon 1996, Grotta del Mitreo/itrej; Petrucci 1997 and Grotta dei Ciclami/ Orehova

pejca; Riedel 1968)were analyzed.

Faunal assemblages were grouped intofour chronological phases. However,loose stratigraphical control overcontexts, general lack of radiocarbondata and difficulties connected with thetraditional chronologies based on potteryand l i thic typology mean that thischronological sequence has onlyheuristical value and has no pretensionto ch al le nge es tabl is hed l ocalchronologies.

heep and goat kill-off curves from four Neolithic, Eneolithic and Bronze age sites were analysed in this case study.Obtained curves show no evidence of specialised milk or meat optimised herding strategies. However there is discernible

end from relatively simple, unoptimized subsistence based on meat towards more diversified and optimised economy imed at variety of animal products (meat and milk) principally for domestic use.

Chronological table of analyzed assemblages

Mesolithic/Neolithictransition

Late Neolithic/ Eneolithic

Eneolithic/ Bronze Age

Vla! ka group

2

2a

33a

Edera

A3

AB4AB5

AB6

6

78 5

Mitreo

Ciclami

Zingari

1

2

3

4

phase

345

Meat or milk? Neolithic economies of Caput AdriaeDimitrij Mlekuz, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljanadimitrij.mlekuz@guest.arnes.si

Payne's optimal milk and meat models

0 20 40 600

20

40

60

80

100

age in months

% survived

inf iuv sub ad

m i l k

m e a t

ResultsResults :: puzzlingpuzzling curvescurvesNone of analysed kill-off curves resemblesideal meat neither ideal milk model.Examples of optimised meat economy canbe found - among other - in early NeolithicGreek and Dalmatian sites. However,those are relatively large, occupied yearround and provide evidence of domesticand agricultural activities. They are insharp contrast to the small, seasonallyused caves, from where all analysedassemblages derive.

Kill-off curves from the Edera (phases 1, 2and 3), Zingari (phase 2), Ciclami (phase2) and Mitreo (phase 3) are similar to thedairying curve as they document relativelyhigh cull of infantile lambs. However, cull of juvenile and subadult animalsis closer to the ideal meat model (Edera and Mitreo, sites with relativelylarge samples). Cull of adult animals is low. Curves from youngestassemblages (Mitreo and Ciclami, phase 4) is structurally different.Comparing to the older curves it demonstrates lower cull of infantileanimals and increased culling of adults. Curves lies between ideal milk andmeat curves.

Combined curves display trend towards higher cullof adult and lower cull of infanti le animals.However, cull of juvenile animals is too high forideal meat model.

IntepretationIntepretation :: nono intensiveintensive dairydairyeconomyeconomyHow can we interpret these puzzling curves? First,a seasonal bias needs to be accounted for. Sincemost sites were occupied in the time of lambing,high number of infantile lambs may reflect highmortality and/or culling. High cull of juveniles mayreflect fodder optimisation strategies (e.g. autumnkilling). Thus early curves demonstrate relativelysimple, unoptimized economy aimed towardsdomestic consumption of meat.

Curves from the youngest assemblages maydocument trends towards optimisation of meatproduction and/or intensification of dairying. Thesecurves may be result of mixed farming strategies,where small number of a variety of animals arekept for mixture of products (meat and milk)principally for domestic use. This pattern not onlyseems more economically plausible but is alsoevident in the considerable heterogeneity thatexists in Late Neolithic, Eneolithic and Broze agefaunal assemblages (Mleku 2005) . However, we

can find no evidence of intensive dairy economy.

ReferencesReferences

Bon, M. 1996. La fauna neolitica della Grotta degli Zingari nel CarsoTriestino. Atti della Societ per la Praistoria e Protoistoria della Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia 9, 127-135.

Boschin, F. and A. Riedel 2000. The late Mesolithic and Neolithicfauna of the Edera cave (Aurisina, Trieste Karst): a preliminaryreport. Societ Preistoria Protoistoria Friuli-Venezia Giulia 82,Quaderno 8, 73-90.

Mleku , D. 2005. Trajektorije mezoltskih in neolitskih krajin severnih Dinaridov . PhD Thesis,Department of Archaeology, University of Ljubljana.

Payne, S. 1973. Kill-off patterns in sheep and goats: the mandibles from Asvan Kale. Anatolian studies 23, 281-303.

Petrucci G. 1997. Resti di fauna dai livelli neolitici e post-neolitici della Grotta del Mitreo nel Carso diTrieste (Scavi 1967). Atti della Societ per la Praistoria e Protoistoria della Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia 10, 99-118.

Riedel A. 1969. I mamifer domestici della Caverna dei Ciclami nel Carso Triestino. Atti e Memorie della Commissione Grotte E. Boegan 82, 79-110.

Sherratt, A. 1981. Plough and pastoralism: aspects of the Secondary Products Revolution. In: I.Hodder, G. Isaac and N. Hammond (Eds.), Pattern of the past . Cambridge, Cambridge UniversityPress, 261-306.

Kill-off curves of analysed assemblages, grouped by phases

8

i nf iu v s ub ad ul t a du lt

milk

meat

Grotta dei Ciclami

8

i nf iu v s ub ad ul t a du lt

milk

meat

Grotta dellEdera

8

i nf iu v s ub ad ul t a du lt

milk

meat

Grotta degli Zingari

8

i nf iu v s ub ad ul t a du lt

milk

meat

Grotta del Mitreo

2

3

4

2

2

4

3

2

1

p has e 1

p h a s e 2

p h a s e 3

p h a s e 4

Combined kill-off curves of four chronological phases

inf iuv subadul t adult

milk

meat

Trieste Karst

p has e 1

p h a s e 2

p h a s e 3

p h a s e 4

Meat optimised kill-off curve $ $

$

% &1 %- / + -2 !0 -3 ) ! 0- 3)

'%34

'#!)

5%&6! 7(03%/!0#

c) 2005 Dimitrij Mleku !